Rather than gathering sunlight it looks as though it is emanating sunlight. The images, almost out of a fantasy and unearthly but grounded in reality with a field of 624 mirrors which move throughout the day, tracking the sun, and focusing its beams onto the tip of a 160-meter-tall tower. The rays are water evaporating, so yes, the images are real.

The project makes use of well proven European technologies, like glass-metal heliostats, a pressurized water thermal storage system, and a saturated steam receiver and turbine. The focused light heats up a tank of water at the tip of the tower, which in turn powers the steam turbine of an electrical generator. This simple process can generate up to 20 megawatts of energy.

Tall and lean the tower was designed to reduce the visual impact. The PS10 solar at the Solucar Platform in Sanlucar la Mayor, southern Spain is one of two. When the entire complex is completed in the 2013, the plant will produce enough energy for 180,000 homes, equivalent to the needs of the city of Seville. The tower will prevent the emission of more than 600,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases each year.